IT IS FITTING that former Texas Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice John Cornyn sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and is chairman of its subcommittee on the Constitution. Last week, Cornyn presided over its first hearing, which he framed as: “Judicial Nominations, Filibusters and the Constitution: When a Majority Is Denied Its Right to Consent.” When Cornyn was elected to the Senate last fall, he couldn’t have expected that he would be holding such a hearing. In 2001 and 2002, President Bush and a Senate controlled (by one vote) by Democrats often fought over judicial nominations. With the Democrats losing the Senate in the midterm elections, Republicans assumed the confirmation process would become much less contentious.